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Hersheythepup

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Everything posted by Hersheythepup

  1. Until recently I was in a PhD program studying microbiology and molecular genetics. I made the difficult (but right) decision to leave aftr 2 years as wet bench work was absolutely not the career path I wanted to pursue anymore. Mastering out of my program is not possible, sadly. I am transitioning into the counterterrorism/counterintelligence space with the goal of working on CBRN (chem, bio, rad, nuclear) defense. In undergrad I got a minor in global terrorism at the University of Maryland and did an internship working on DARPA Sigma+ which is focused on CRBN-based defense and I loved it. I am really excited to make this transition and am passionate about this new career. I'm applying to jobs that don't require a graduate degree currently, but also want to apply to some MA programs in homeland security/CT/intelligence in case those don't prove fruitful. I think a grad degree would help show commitment to this field change if I can't get some entry-level job just to get my foot in the door in some tangentially related position. I have good letters of rec and a good academic track record, but am concerned about how leaving a grad program will look on my applications. There are only a small handful of these programs so the schools will be along the caliber of University of Maryland (my alma mater), American, George Mason, Penn State World, GW, and Hopkins/ Georgetown at the top end. Should I mention my graduate coursework from my PhD in the applications? I can reframe my time in the microbiology program as "Research Assistant" rather than graduate assistant because I spent all of my time doing research and only took a small handful of courses. How rough do you think this application process will be? Will leaving the PhD be a big enough red flag that I'm in real trouble of not being able to get into a program? Any advice you may have would be great! UG GPA: 3.94 Grad GPA: 4.0
  2. So I literally just started working in my first rotation today and let's just say it didn't go super well. I'm getting my PhD in microbiology and that's what I did my undergrad in, but I did mostly a loooottt of different types of microscopy and I didn't do much cell bio or genetics. I'm more interested by genetics for my potential thesis, but I don't have much experience actually doing these protocols. Today my rotation PI asked me to just do some PCR with this sequence I'm going to learn how to do illumina with but I've only done PCR like twice and neither time really went well. Needless to say, my amplification was not great and now I'm worried that my PI won't think I'm smart enough or good enough on the bench to be his long-term grad student. I know I can learn new techniques and I'm not worried about keeping up with the pace of lab things, but it's just horrifyingly embarassing to have to admit to your PI that you don't really know how to do something most 15 year olds can do. I don't want to disappoint them or ruin my reputation amongst the other PIs after just a few days, but I really feel like I'm below even the undergrads in his lab. I'm not really sure how to address this. I've spent a ton of hours trying to play catch up and learn as many of the basics that I missed out on in undergrad during my free time, but learning just from reading doesn't always translate well into lab. Any suggestions? I know the right answer is to just tell him I don't know these protocols well, but I don't want to expose myself as a dummy and end up making him not want to take me into his lab later on. ?
  3. So I've been accepted to Michigan State and University of Georgia for their microbiology PhD programs, but John's Hopkins accepted me to their Masters in Microbiology after rejecting me from their PhD program. Would it be worth it to spend the extra years going to get the masters so I could get into better PhD programs or is it better to just pick between the options I have? I like both of their programs and they're a good fit for me, but I don't know how much the name will hold me back going forward. Please help!
  4. I'm leaving for an interview weekend this weekend for a microbiology phd program and I haven't been able to find recent grants that a POI I'll be interviewing with has currently. Is it inappropriate to ask about what grants she has funded right now since that is connected to how I'll be paid to be in that lab? I'm only asking because a lot of her publications are from a while ago and I want to know whether she has enough active grants (and therefore active projects) in my field of interest but I'm worried that it will come across as me asking about money too early on. Thoughts?
  5. Yeah I just put one slide at the end talking about a few different research interests in there. Do you think it'd be okay if I emailed them a new version of my ppt though? I'm just deleting two of my slides to save a little time but since they asked for the ppt so long ago I'm not sure. Do you think it'd be better to just click through those slides quickly and hope no one notices?
  6. I got invited to Michigan State's BMS interview weekend from the 10-12th of January and I'm looking forward to it, but they ask each interviewee to do an 8 minute presentation in front of current BMS faculty, grad students, and current applicants. Anyone have any tips for this? I already made my presentation and sent it in, but I just wanted to see if anyone had an idea of what the presentation is going to be like. Thanks!
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